Staying Motivated

Motivation is a topic that frequently came up in my CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) sessions. Despite the plethora of professional advice I received on the topic and desperately wanting to overcome OCD, I continued to struggle to muster up enough motivation to actually tackle the OCD.

Recently I felt like I became much more motivated and wrote a blog post on it here. So why had I suddenly became motivated after years of trying? Had I not wanted it enough before? It wasn’t until I was watching a Ted Talk by Tim Urban that I considered maybe the lack of deadlines had been allowing my to keep putting it off.

Without realising it, by joining a running club I had inadvertently given myself deadlines for making progress. I need to attend the running club this week … I need to go running by myself so I am fitter by the next session … I need to get better so I can enter these races … and so on.

If you are struggling to motivate yourself to tackle mental health problems or just get your life in order, then consider setting a series of mini deadlines.